Originally from Cilento, a UNESCO heritage park in the southern Italian region of Campania, Sofia Gallo is an award winner private chef, cookery tutor and food writer, who took part in MasterChef UK in 2021 and the following year went onto winning the prestigious Inspiring Culinary Generations national competition. Her hospitality career spans across over 2 decades and 3 countries, but it was during the first lockdown that she started sharing her culinary heritage with the rest of the world. Sofia first started off by making recipe cards, they were initially aimed at the international guests who were unable to travel to her family’s holiday villa. She wanted to find a way for them to enjoy Italian food together but from a distance. Traditional Italian recipes, passed on, for people to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes. From the recipe cards, she then moved on to making video content which was shared online and this then quickly turned into virtual lessons with attendees from right across the globe. From Food festivals across the Country, exceptional reviews, to accolades into The National Geographic, her goal is to open a classic Italian eatery with classes on the side but her ultimate goal is “to win the lottery, buy a Georgian house, create a retreat and invite people to come and stay so that they can learn to cook with me whilst taking a break from the busy world that we live in.”

‘Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle, e questa siepe, che da tanta parte dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude’
Always to me beloved was this lonely hillside
And the hedgerow creeping over and always hiding
The distances, the horizon’s furthest reaches’
L’infinito.

— GIACOMO LEOPARDI

Sofia’s interest in food goes back to learning how to make fresh pasta from her Nonna Luigia, since knee high. Her passion for passing on Italian traditions, transpires in her menus which represent the scents and flavours she grew up with, “It is important for me to share my roots and as much of my origins as possible with you; to enable a culinary experience that will bring you straight to Italy.”